Growing up in Bristol and going to camera club with my Dad in the 1970s I was told to have some red in the foreground and always make sure the sun was behind me before pressing the shutter. Nowadays, living in Wincanton in south Somerset and photographing gardens for a living, I constantly do the reverse, shooting into the sun to capture the animating light that illuminates the tissues of plants like the humming hot bulb of a slide projector brings to life a small piece of celluloid. I avoid the sun a lot too; light is a powerful thing and too much can destroy an image altogether.

I've always used a camera, though professionally only since 2004. Before that I was an artist and then a gardener, and my attempt to fuse those two things has brought me to the wonderful, creative place I spend most of my time now: making pictures of and writing about gardens and plants, hunting out weird and wonderful places and stories, and meeting people who are bonkers about a particular plant, who make beautiful spaces in which to spend time, and who practice horticulture professionally with immense skill and creativity.

This year, 2019, has started particularly well as an image of mine shot at the Yeo Valley Organic Garden in Somerset, 'Summer Morning at Holt Farm', was awarded 2nd place in the Beautiful Gardens category of IGPOTY 12 (International Garden Photographer of the Year), and two other images, both of Scottish gardens incidentally, were named as finalists.